I appreciate you voicing out and joining this thread, @ConcernedBusinessOwner.

This isn't the impression we want you to have about QuickBooks. Thus I want you to know that I'm taking note of your feedback. Being unable to add employees as a time tracker user has already been reported, and investigations are already being implemented. 

While I'm unable to provide a definite time frame for when this will be rectified, I’ll surely update this post once there’s progress. Also, since your Admin already contacted us, your company details are already enrolled in our automatic notification updates.

If you need anything else or you have something for me to share on your behalf, just let me know. I'm always around for you. Take care always.

I can't believe this is an issue again.  I spent months early last year unable to add time tracking users, and once again am unable to do so.  It is frustrating and a drain on a company's time and resources.  What makes this issue so much worse is the fact that Intuit doesn't seem to take the problem seriously and continues to raise their prices for cloud software that doesn't work properly or consistently.  

Honestly, what does "Error, Please try again? An unexpected error ocurred. Please try after some time." even mean?  When will this issue be resolved?  Hearing over and over again that the engineers are "working on it" isn't helpful in the least.  

I have already been in touch with support via chat and the representative I spoke with seemed to know nothing about why the error was occurring.  The two users I was trying to add were new employees with absolutely no transactions in their record at all (as I attempted to add them as time tracking users immediately after adding them to the employee file) - so if the investigation is only looking into employees that have previous transactions, it needs to be expanded to all employees your customers are attempting to add as time tracking users.  Thank you for following up and I do hope to see this issue resolved permanently in the near future.    

It's 5/24/19 and we've also been having this issue, have talked to support and been given the same run around that it's being looked into since it's affecting (according to the QB person who "helped" us) over 200+ companies. According to this thred this has been going on for almost half a year. 

Let's cut to the chase, I don't think Quickbook has any intention of fixing this error because they are doing a hard push to try and get people to either upgrade OR pay almost $300 annually for the T-sheets program. 

Accounting 4 DC, I agree.  QuickBooks has become a disappointment for small businesses.  I have religiously referred clients to QBO and now I am searching for a more affordable replacement for small businesses.

I am in the same boat.  I can't believe there is not a work around, or a way for Quickbooks help personnel to add the employee for me or even a message from Quickbooks saying "I am sorry for your inconvenience, we appreciate your patience while we address this issue" but instead THEY JUST ARE TRYING TO SELL ME MORE EXPENSIVE SERVICES.  I am about out of patience.   This can't be that complicated to fix, it is affecting my productivity, so I can only assume they really don't care about my business efficiency since they seem to be able to provide all kinds of other software updates they want to charge me for. 

Hello mualpha,

Allow me to help share information about the issue going on with adding time tracking a user in QuickBooks Online.

The investigation (inv-28913) is still ongoing, and our engineers are diligently operating to get this fix for all affected users. For the workaround, It would be best contacting our Support Specialists for them to guide you with performing the step-by-step process.

I'm adding the detailed steps on how you can reach them:

1. Log into your QuickBooks account.
2. Click the Help option in the upper-right corner.
3. Click the Contact us hyperlink.

For future reference, I'm also adding the support link I find helpful:

Contact the QuickBooks Online Customer Support team.

I want to ensure that you're able to reach out to our Support Specialists, so please feel free to let me know how it goes. If you should have any questions, I'm just a click away.

I have already contacted support.  They told me engineers were working on it and they did not have any work arounds or suggestions for me.  Since you believe there is a way for me to add my employee another way, perhaps you can just tell me how  to do it?  

AlcaeusF, This is incorrect information.  I contacted them today and they were not able to "guide" me "with performing the step-by-step process".  I will post my chat below, it was lengthy.

You

 at 11:32, Jun 7:

I received this email update today?Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:32, Jun 7:

Thank you. For now, there is no turn around time as when this will be fixed. Rest assured that your email will be added to this case so that you will be notified once there is an update and resolution to this matter.

You

 at 11:32, Jun 7:

Allow me to help share information about the issue going on with adding time tracking a user in QuickBooks Online.
The investigation (inv-28913) is still ongoing, and our engineers are diligently operating to get this fix for all affected users. For the workaround, I recommend contacting our Support Specialists for them to be able to guide you with performing the process.
I'm adding the detailed steps on how you can reach them:
Log into your QuickBooks account. Click the Help option in the upper-right corner. Click the Contact us hyperlink.
For future reference, I'm also adding the support link I find helpful:
Contact the QuickBooks Online Customer Support team.
I want to ensure that you're able to reach out to our Support Specialists, so please feel free to let me know how it goes. If you should have any questions, I'm just a click away.Read

You

 at 11:33, Jun 7:

Is it incorrect information?Read

You

 at 11:34, Jun 7:

It says a support specialist can still help me through the process even though it is has been an ongoing process the engineers have been working on.Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:34, Jun 7:

I apologize for this information, however the instructions is just to contact us, but not really a solution to this issue,

You

 at 11:34, Jun 7:

I recommend contacting our Support Specialists for them to be able to guide you with performing the process.Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:34, Jun 7:

Correct, technically this is still an ongoing issue and our Engineers are aware of this.

You

 at 11:35, Jun 7:

Nope, it says a support specialist can "guide me through performing the process"Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:37, Jun 7:

The process we are taking now is to add your email address under investigation so that once this issue is fixed you will be notified as soon as possible, Our next update is currently scheduled for:6/17/2019 12:00:00 GMT 2019

You

 at 11:38, Jun 7:

Really, you guys are so dishonest! I will be sure to post this to the QBO community and follow up with the survey that you were not helpful.Read

You

 at 11:39, Jun 7:

I can't be receiving conflicting information from 2 different QBO support specialists.Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:40, Jun 7:

Let me go ahead and check this with the level 3 support so they can further assist us and provide a work around

You

 at 11:41, Jun 7:

Interesting there is a fix Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:41, Jun 7:

Can you pls stay while i can check on this

You

 at 11:41, Jun 7:

Yes Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:41, Jun 7:

We are checking on it now, one moment pls

Gian Carla E

 at 11:41, Jun 7:

thank you

Gian Carla E

 at 11:45, Jun 7:

Kindly go to accounts.intuit.com -  Once successfully log in there, they should also clean up/fix/correct any profile information they need to (name, phone number, username, email, etc). Please check if the information showing in that page are all correct.

You

 at 11:46, Jun 7:

yes, it is correct Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:47, Jun 7:

Okay one moment pls, ill get back to you, need to consult and relay this and they will check again.

You

 at 11:48, Jun 7:

OK Read

Gian Carla E

 at 11:48, Jun 7:

Thank you

Gian Carla E

 at 11:58, Jun 7:

Thank you for waiting, can you pls provide the exact error message when trying to add the time tracking user?

You

 at 12:00, Jun 7:

one moment, I'm pulling it up Read

You

 at 12:01, Jun 7:

Error, Please try again?
An unexpected error occurred. Please try after some time.Read

Gian Carla E

 at 12:02, Jun 7:

Thank you. Also, the one that you are inviting, do they have an access to view my paycheck?

You

 at 12:04, Jun 7:

yes, they are set up to do so (email address is entered under employee personal information). i don't believe they have tried to log in yet.Read

Gian Carla E

 at 12:08, Jun 7:

Thank you for that additional information

Gian Carla E

 at 12:16, Jun 7:

Thank you for waiting, since we have tried the workaround provided and we also ask our back end team to make this work  but still we can't add the time tracking user. We would rally need to wait for our engineers to fix the issue and to have a permanent resolution
We really apologize for the inconvenience.

You

 at 12:21, Jun 7:

In the meantime, how do we enter time in QBO? The time tracking feature is listed as a selling point for essentials, plus & advanced. It hasn't been operational for quite some time. That is false advertising.Read

You

 at 12:21, Jun 7:

There has to be a quick fix, reimbursement, or Intuit must stop listing it as a selling point.Read

You

 at 12:22, Jun 7:

While I am genuinely a kind person and understanding person, I can't exit my chat saying this is at all acceptable.Read

Gian Carla E

 at 12:24, Jun 7:

As another option while this isn't working for now, we suggest to go to plus icon> then under employee> choose either single time activity or weekly time sheet

You

 at 12:25, Jun 7:

"Give employees and subcontractors limited access to enter time worked"Read

You

 at 12:25, Jun 7:

That is what we are paying for Read

Hi again,  cpa1,

I appreciate you for giving us a feedback with regards to your experience.  I will be sending a feedback regarding this so that we take all measures to prevent this from happening again.

Now that you have me on this matter, let me turn that experience around and assist you with your concerns.

Right now, our engineers are actively working for a fix about the unexpected behavior on Unable to add employee or vendor as a Time Tracker User.

In the meantime, what you can do as a workaround, is log in at accounts.Intuit.com and then use the "forgot password" process if needed. Once you're successfully log in, clean up/fix/correct any profile information you need (name, phone number, username, email, etc).

Once done, I invite you contacting our Customer Care support since this needs our engineers access to remove the paycheck view access version.

To contact us, here's how:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company account.
2. Click the Help icon on the top right.
3. Click Contact Us button at the bottom.
4. Enter a short description about your concern.
5. Click on Let's talk.
6. Choose from Chat or Get a callback.

After the removal is complete, you can now send a new invite in which they can now accept the invite using the verified credentials using an incognito/private window. Lastly, have them make sure to select the "Already have an account? Sign in" if they see it at the top of the page.

That's it! I'd appreciate if you can update me on how it goes. I'm always here to help. Take care.

I agree with this analysis.

QUICKBOOKS DOESN'T CARE.

I'm switching to WAVE accounting ASAP.

Done with QB BS.

WHY IS THIS NOT FIXED??? WE ARE ALL TRYING TO RUN BUSINESSES AND INVOICE.

Hi @annoyed1,

Our engineers are still on the process of resolving this so that users can add their time tracking users to QuickBooks. Also, we want to make sure you're back to working on your business as soon as possible.

We don't want to delay you with your transactions. We also don't want you to feel burdened by this ongoing issue. I personally want to let you know that we are striving hard to provide you with a permanent resolution.

In the meantime, you can follow the workaround provided by my colleague @MirriamM above.

Also, I suggest reaching out to our QuickBooks Online support team. This way, they can review your account and add you to the list of affected accounts.

Once you're on the list, you'll then receive email updates about this ongoing issue, as well as the permanent resolution.

Here's how you can contact them:

1. Log in to your QuickBooks account.
2. Click on Help.
3. Choose Contact Us.

We appreciate your patience while we're fixing this for you. Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any other concerns.

All MiriamM posted was how to log into Quickbooks and how to use the Contact Us form.  Which has been posted repeatedly but doesn't in any way solve this problem.

I'm not sure if this is related, but I'm also adding a new employee, and on the screen where it asks if I have paid this person already this year, I'm not able to select anything, it's all greyed out. So I'm wondering if this is somehow causing the process to fail.

This response doesn't even make sense. When you add a time tracking user, you have to select from a dropdown list of vendors and employees. So "If the name the customer trying to use is already present in QBO as an vendor, contractor or employee that is a reason the addition of a time tracking only user would fail." is suggesting the impossible. There's no way to enter a completely new name from that screen. Just more incompetence from the Quickbooks "Help" team.

There was no work around suggested by MirriamM  to "Give employees and subcontractors limited access to enter time worked".

To be clear, the community does not need instructions posted for contacting support again, they have been posted on this thread numerous times.  When support is contacted they keep us on chat or the phone for hours without a result.  QBO/Intuit does not value their customers or respect their time.  We are getting the run around and it is poor customer service. 

Over the last two months I have called quickbooks 4 times, spent countless hours on the phone trying to figure out a workaround. I do not appreciate this statement in your reply

"We don't want to delay you with your transactions. We also don't want you to feel burdened by this ongoing issue. I personally want to let you know that we are striving hard to provide you with a permanent resolution."

How are you striving? You are delaying your transactions, your preventing me from invoicing properly, you are adding to my work load, and this is costing us a lot of money. We should be reimbursed for the billable time we are losing to work on this.

Quite frankly this is ridiculous. If this is a software issue - spend the money and outsource a solution. Obviously, this is way past the abilities of your internal software engineers. OR Remove limits for all customers until you figure this out!!!!

Very unhappy and I am currently looking at other options than quickbooks. Even the opportunity cost of a new system and integration would be cheaper than what you all are costing me right now.

Hey there @DynamiteBooks, and @cpa1.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the information posted in the Community space.

I know that time is essential when running a business and that’s something we don’t want to take away from you. At Intuit, we’re continuously working so our customers have better experiences when reaching out for support.

The reason why you have to contact our QBO Care Team it’s because they have tools that can remove the user’s access. Once that’s done, you should be able to add another user using the verified login credentials.

If I hear any updates about the resolution status, I'll post the information here in the Community.

This should help you move forward. If there’s anything else I can help you with, leave me a comment below. I’ll jump right back in to assist further.

Rasa-LilaM, Please see my chat thread posted above where I spent approximately 1 hour chatting with Carla, the situation was elevated to Level 3, and the customer care team did NOT have the tools to remove the users access as you have stated they do.  Please only provide accurete helpful information that is not misleading.

CPA1,

I am also a user and share/echo all of your frustration.  Thank you for advocating for us. 

I figured out one work around in which I have a subcontractor who is a 1099. I finally got him tracking (billable) time by setting up one vendor for him to be his (non-1099 tracked) timekeeping user and another, separate vendor with a different email address to pay him and track those payments for his 1099. 

Not a great work around but at least we don’t have to hand-enter his time for him anymore. 

Quickbooks team-  this is just a friendly suggestion. I recommend you drop the niceties about wanting to make us all successful and to ensure that we users are satisfied etc.  When your company’s software does not work, these platitudes seem very artificial and are exasperating to read over and over. 

What is compelling to me are clear facts about the problem, how to work around it, and timelines. 

CPA1,

I am also a user and share/echo all of your frustration.  Thank you for advocating for us. 

I figured out one work around in which I have a subcontractor who is a 1099. I finally got him tracking (billable) time by setting up one vendor for him to be his (non-1099 tracked) timekeeping user and another, separate vendor with a different email address to pay him and track those payments for his 1099. 

Not a great work around but at least we don’t have to hand-enter his time for him anymore. 

Quickbooks team-  this is just a friendly suggestion. I recommend you drop the niceties about wanting to make us all successful and to ensure that we users are satisfied etc.  When your company’s software does not work, these platitudes seem very artificial and are exasperating to read over and over. 

What is compelling to me are clear facts about the problem, how to work around it, and timelines.